Our speaker on September 25 2018 was Kitchener Mayor Barry Vrbanovic.
Mayor Berry Vrbanovic has been a long-standing member of Kitchener city council. He served as Ward 2 city councillor for two decades before being elected as mayor in 2014. He is a Croatian-Canadian politician and a big supporter of the LGBTQ community
In addition to providing leadership to the rest of council and our city, the mayor acts as our official representative within several other organizations, including:
- the Association of Municipalities' of Ontario - Large Urban Mayors' Caucus of Ontario (LUMCO)
- the Federation of Canadian Municipalities - Big City Mayors' Caucus (BCMC)
- Waterloo regional council
- non-municipal boards and committees
By serving as a member of these groups, the mayor is helping to address important issues at the local, provincial and federal levels.
In the last year of the current councils term a strategic plan is developed for the next 4 years and part of the plan was a City Survey that was completed by 3000 residents and there 5 top concerns are
- open government ie: e-participation portal
- sustainable environment ie: more bike paths
- effective and efficient services ie: LED replacement of street lights
- economic development ie: Toronto-Waterloo Innovation corridor
- neighborhood strategy ie: 5000 residents where involved in developing this strategy on how to bring individual neighborhood’s across the city together by making better use of the facilities in their respective area
Other items on the go at council,
- Comprehensive Rezoning review is currently underway
- A Civic Innovation Centre has been created in the Communitech building
- Managing growth along the ION route which has approx.. $1 billion worth of development scheduled over the next 3 years
- Opening of Catalyst137. It is the world's largest space devoted specifically to Internet of Things hardware companies. The 475,000 sq ft building brings together local talent, hardware engineering firms, and venture capital support to help KW's growing IoT companies compete in the global market.. 137 Glasgow St
Challenges in the years to come:
- Improve transit between KW and Toronto
- Housing affordability
- Fiscal prudence
- Opioids crisis in our community
- How the new provincial gov’t will effect our local gov’t , ie: will they force consolidation of Kitchener, Waterloo , Cambridge